Frank Mankiewicz Oral History Interview – RFK #2, 7/10/1969
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John V. Lindsay Oral History Interview – RFK#1, 04/21/1970 Administrative Information Creator: John V. Lindsay Interviewer: Roberta Greene Date of Interview: April 21, 1970 Place of Interview: New York, New York Length: 16 pages Biographical Note John V. Lindsay was the Mayor of New York City (1965-1973). This interview focuses on the transit strike in New York City, Lindsay and Robert F. Kennedy’s [RFK] collaborations on New York City matters, and reflections on RFK’s understanding of public life and the cities, among other issues. Access Restrictions Open Usage Restrictions According to the deed of gift signed November 9, 1972, copyright of these materials has been assigned to the United States Government. Users of these materials are advised to determine the copyright status of any document from which they wish to publish. Copyright The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excesses of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. The copyright law extends its protection to unpublished works from the moment of creation in a tangible form. Direct your questions concerning copyright to the reference staff. Transcript of Oral History Interview These electronic documents were created from transcripts available in the research room of the John F. Kennedy Library. The transcripts were scanned using optical character recognition and the resulting text files were proofread against the original transcripts. Some formatting changes were made. Page numbers are noted where they would have occurred at the bottoms of the pages of the original transcripts. If researchers have any concerns about accuracy, they are encouraged to visit the library and consult the transcripts and the interview recordings. Suggested Citation John V. Lindsay, recorded interview by Roberta Greene, April 21, 1970, (page number), Robert F. Kennedy Oral History Program of the John F. Kennedy Library. GENERAL fE.'l'IICES ADKUITSTRATIOK NATIO!lAL ARCXrVF.s AND fil:C0.'IDS S"'.lf'IICE GLft f PersooiU State::en"t f J hn V. Lindsa;,- to tl:.e I, John V. Lindsa.y, f Ne~ York, r.. Y. , de hereby give "to the John F. Kcnru?dy Llbriu-y, for use and ac... ; n~ strati on therein, all rey riehts, title and ir.-cerest, except as hcl"ei11aCtei• p1· vldcd, to t.hc tape recording awi -cran~cript r th· lntel"Vic;; c mtuct.ed at flew '!':>rk , li.Y. o::i Aµril 21, 19"70 fol' the .Tohn F. K ri.nedy Libr:u-y. The girt of this mntcr la.1 l 11 made sub.feet to the follow.ing ter ms o.nd condition.;: 1. The lnt~rvtew is co be opened immediatel y to generu:i research. ? . R"se111·clit"1•a wbo have access to the transcr ipt, ot' thr1 I nt~1·vicw ma..v listen -co the t ape; howe·ver, this Ju to be for bo.ckground use only. Researchers may nnt ci tc, 11araphrase or quote from the tape. 3. I hr>l"eby o.::isign li tera.ry property rights in this interview to the U:1ited 3ta.tes Government. 11. Coplen of the interview transcript may be pr~v.ided u;pon request to llllY researcher. 5. Co:pica f the 1nterv:icw ~ , up!>n reques;;, be deposited in other instituticus. 6. hia asrccc:ent ~ be re-.""ised "r e.z::e::deC. by mutual c the parties u.':der:oig::erl.. Octol>t ·r 26. l!l7 2 lllL John V. Lindsay – RFK #1 Table of Contents Page Topic 1 Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] appearances during the campaign of 1965 1 The transit strike in New York City and RFK’s opinions 3 Lindsay and RFK working together on New York City matters: Bedford – Stuyvesant, the civilian review board, meetings and other issues 5 Personal views of RFK 5 Time served under the John F. Kennedy [JFK] administration: influences on RFK, Lindsay’s time as a congressman, civil rights legislation 7 Contact and work with the Hill: RFK, Peter Tufo, Senator Javits, and others 9 Reflections on RFK’s understanding of public life and the cities 10 1966 appearance before the Abraham A. Ribicoff subcommittee: RFK’s reaction and finances 12 Funding and the Model Cities Program 12 RFK’s feelings on the Lyndon B. Johnson administration’s approach to urban Problems 13 Bedford – Stuyvesant project: approach by RFK, Lindsay’s role and concerns, reflections, and lessons learned .. \ .-~ . Oral History Interview with JOHN V. LINDSAY April 21, 1970 New York, New York By Roberta Greene For the Robert Kennedy Oral History Project of the Kennedy Library LINDSAY: Is it going now? GREENE: Yes it is. Okay, now it's •••• Fine. ( LINDSAY: All right. I think that Bob [Robert F. Kennedy] had to, I think that during the '65 campaign, politically he had to make rather token appearances for [Abraham D.] Abe Beame • • • GREENE: Right. LINDSAY: ••• around the city and he did. It was clear that it was not a chore that he relished. GREENE: But you had no personal contact? LINDSAY: No. GREENE: Or with his people? LINDSAY: No. Not during the campaign at all. GREENE: Well then the first thing that comes to my mind--and I_~hink Judy Freiss and I agreed on this{was the transit strike. There's been a lot written but I've never heard a firsthand account from your point of view and • . ••• -2- LINDSAY: Well, it's no. • • • You know recollection on these things be~omes hazy, too. That was a long and very difficult period and it was a fore-ordained strike that began even before I took office; and as [Michael -J. J Quill told me on several occasions when I met him privately before I took office as mayor, that .they had to have a strike and that's all there was to it. They had a lot of internal problems and he said, "Don't worry about it, we've got to have it •." Md Bob came into New York only once during that period and visited us. at City Hall, deplored the situation and said, "It was very bad for the city," which it was, but' had no specific solutions of any kind. GREENE: Was • • • As far as you could tell was he in agreement with the method that you were taking? LINDSAY: Well, it's hard to tell. I asked him what more we ought to be doing and he didn't have any thought, any idea on it beyond what we were doing which was negotiating as hard and as toughly as we could and dealing in the courts at the same time and all the rest of it. And no, there were no suggestions or ideas· beyond what we were already doing. GREENE: Where do you think that the • . LINDSAY: He was very unhappy about the situation, but who wasn't? We all were. GREENE: Right. Where do you think the impressions that you were very annoyed at his behavior I in this situation came from? Was that just the pressroom or •••• LINDSAY: I think it was outside look-a-book. Yeah. GREENE: It was not really ••• LINDSAY: Yes. Because we met after. • • • The press knew that he had come in City Hall. Then when we met the press together, it was very clear that he didn't have any idea about what should be done. And before the cameras he kept saying, "This is a very bad thing." And you know, we all agreed. Even the press, who'd been living with it, this time, was amused by that because we - -~--- -3- didn't have to be reminded that it was a bad thing. Everyone knew it was a bad thing. GREENE: Art Buchwald' did a colunm about that. LINDSAY: Yeah. And I think that impression was--I never said a word, publicly or privately, on it at 'all. I said, "I'm glad the senator is here and that he shares our concern." But I think that was a p~ess response for the most part. GREENE: .Good. Well, I wondered .if you had had any conversations with him initially after your election about how you might work together on city matters? If you'd set up any kind of formal, or informal meeting, liaison rather? LINDSAY: Well, of course, we always work with staffs, generally speaking, and I'm sure that I talked to Bob on a few occasions about city matters over the phone. When we started to meet on a fairly regular basis--this was over the Bed Stuy [Bedford-Stuyvesant] restoration concept. I don't know that we had a lot of meetings before that unless. When did this civilian review ( board fight come? GREENE: '66. LINDSAY: Was that before or after Bed-Stuy restora tion, do you remember? GREENE: Well, Bedford-Stuyvesant was announced in December of '66 and the review board was voted in • • • LINDSAY: When was the review board? GREENE: '66 and it was voted down in November. Yeah.